Understanding Persuasion

The study of persuasion is built upon early research from
multiple fields: including Pavlov’s conditioned response experiments, B.F.
Skinner’s behavior modification, Marshall Mcluhan’s media studies, Walter
Lippman’s communication theories.

Advertising executives now use behavioral and
brain science to sell products or help politicians more effectively target
voters.

“Neuromarketing” consultants advise corporations and political groups
on “scientific” ways to “sell” their products and candidates.

Many forms of persuasion, such as propaganda,
disinformation, and false advertising, are destructive, leaving a targeted
populace feeling cynical, battered, and exploited.

Recognizing Manipulation, Marketing, Persuasion, Opinion‐Making, and Tactics for Changing AttitudesAlthough there is a trend in political circles toward finding ways to use language effectively through “framing” and market research, there actually should be much greater emphasis on training students to develop a stonger immunity to the misuse of semantics, images, appeals, and rhetoric.

Students can learn to sift through the swarm of tacit and explicit messages they receive from culture, society, and media to discover their underlying values and authentic feelings.

By college, every young person should have the tools to analyze the credibility of information whether it is a news report, a political ad, or a propaganda piece (regardless of whether it comes from one’s own side or not.)

Students should be encouraged to examine the roots of ideological beliefs and learn to weigh conflicting interpretations of data and evidence. Amid the clash of beliefs, cultures, and political agendas, there is a hodgepodge of conflicting claims of scientific proof and deliberate distortion and creation of false “controversies.”

PropagandaPropaganda is the deliberate packaging and marketing of ideas and values using images, rhetoric, and “button‐pressing” words designed to procure a desired response from a targeted audience. The purposes of propaganda are to condition a populace to adopt a desired belief system, to control people’s behavior, to maintain the status quo, to take advantage of consumers, to sell a product, and so on. State‐orchestrated propaganda is one of the most destructive forces used to undermine democracy, civic awareness, and justice, making it almost impossible to have an informed electorate and a healthy society.